Mind Control: Three warnings from an ex-magician

If you watch the news, you'd get the impression that everyone thinks the idea of mind control is crazy. This is strange since there isn't any controversy in the "mainstream" about the existence of psychological operations. It's only the degree to which we are brainwashed that's argued about by academics.

It's easy to imagine organizations conduct PSYOPS to sway public opinion. There's no question this takes place. It's much harder to see the effects in ourselves, or comprehend the depth of deception possible. It's clear, the North Koreans are brainwashed, hung, and dried, but North Americans aren't, right? Our minds are free.

Is deception in media a mild influence used to increase sales? Or is there mind control at work more subtle than the popular notion?

Edward Bernays, father of modern marketing and nephew of Sigmund Freud, thinks "We are dominated by the relatively small number of persons . . . who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind."

He also thought, "People are rarely aware of the real reasons which motivate their actions."

Does the news, social media, TV and film, influence motivations, or even severely affect the mind?

Three warnings from an ex-magician

You might be thinking, "Who are you, dude? Why should I believe you're qualified to talk about deception?"

Excellent questions. I'm @skypal, a nickname given to me in high-school. Assuming you've being paying attention, you may have noticed that news media, TV, and film, are being used to manipulate you.

That's OK if you weren't aware. You have things to do.

I'm not going to try and argue or convince you of anything because even if you were to believe me, the belief is not the reality. You would still have to discover the truth yourself to understand. You're going to have to make up you're own mind.

I just want you to know that I have a specific skill, and my experience might benefit you.

To answer your second question, I have to tell you a story.

WARNING: Everything I have learned from 1000s of hours of practice and performance is completely subjective and unscientific. All information that follows may be partly fake some of the time, sometimes fake part of the time, but never fully fake all of the time.

At the moment of astonishment, the mind is freed from the weight of memory, and there is joy

When I was seven, my brother showed me the famous cups and balls magic trick. I was astonished and it set me on the path of a magician. When I was twelve, I began taking magic lessons from a national award-winning magician, Jose. By the time I was thirteen, I was performing for money at restaurants, fairs, birthdays and eventually, for crowds of hundreds at hotels, theatres, and corporate events.

People kept telling me I was very talented. I would have been skeptical of the praise, since I was just a kid, if it weren't for regular bookings and the reactions on people's faces at the punchline of an effect.

Here I am with Jose, my first time "table hopping" at the local Whitespot.

For ten years I was passionate about evoking feelings of wonder and astonishment in people, being fooled by other magicians, and accumulating new principles of the art of deception.

As I got older, I lost motivation. Slowly, I practiced less and less until one day, I began turning down new gigs.

But my relationship with mystery, illusion, and deception remains intimate.

Lessons learned from that time in my life have been invaluable. Here are three things I hope will serve as a warning of the sophistication of deception techniques and the health risk the news, TV, and film industries pose.

1. Anyone can be deceived, easily

I had to deceive the drunk, sober, gullible, skeptical, young, old, smart, and not as smart.

It became clear to me that a janitor and a physicist can be fooled with the same effort. Although the physicist may be less likely to believe it is real magic, he is just as vulnerable to the same principles of prestidigitation.

Maybe you think you're too smart to be fooled. You're wrong.

Even with over a decade of study, testing theories in performance, and watching professional magicians, I am still easily fooled if a magician uses an original method.

In some cases, having more knowledge makes deception easier. There are "magician's magicians," skilled in fooling other magicians by using their knowledge against them.

My question for you is this: If a kid with a deck of cards could deceive intelligent adults, then what could an organization with unlimited resources and money do?

Imagine the sophisticated techniques of manipulation that could be employed with the knowledge from years of psychological experimentation.

You might think I'm fooling myself. I often do, but not in this case. Every one of my audience members knew they were being deceived, that's true, but they weren't aware of the mechanics of the deception. They all knew (I hope) that it is impossible that the card actually vanished and appeared in my sock, but they were never aware of when and how they were duped.

Rather than vanishing a card, what if the desired effect was something that doesn't defy the laws of physics, like making the audience believe a certain group committed a terrorist attack?

In that context, by using the same principles a magician uses, a person would be unaware that a magic trick is being performed on them. It would be a hidden deception potentially casting a powerful spell.

2. Words and conditioning shape perception

Some people are experts without any study. "It's just misdirection and sleight-of-hand" I've been informed. That's true, like carpentry is just attaching wood, or hockey is just putting the puck in the net.

Misdirection is grossly misunderstood. It's not so much "Hey, look over here," but more of a continuous direction of attention with words, body language, and performance style.

Misdirection is also guiding the audience through moments of tension and relaxation, conflict and resolution, creating expectations, and breaking them. This rhythm naturally occurs in any good story. Whether the words in a magic effect make up a story, or explicit exposition, the magician takes the audience on a journey of guided attention through ups and downs and a diverse set of emotions, keeping the audience focussed and entertained, and therefore easily deceived.

You can't relax and focus at the same time. Your eyes can't focus on two things at once.

Here's a simple example of conditioning and misdirection. I place a coin in my hand, then with a wave slowly uncurl the fingers and . . . it's still there. This breaks the expectations of the audience that it will vanish. There is tension in my shoulders, then relaxation when the fist is opened, inspiring the audience to feel the same. In the precise moment of relaxation, I place the coin back in my hand, but this time, do a false transfer, secretly retaining the coin.

Not good enough.

There has to be motivation for each movement. Why did I take the coin out of my hand just to put it back in the hand? It feels unnatural. There has to be a reason. I could take the coin out of my hand after the failed attempt, confused as to why it didn't vanish, hold it near an audience member, and say, "What would happen if you snapped your fingers over the coin?" They snap, I compliment their ability, which gets a giggle, then, in that moment of decreased expectations, I do the false transfer. After defining the moment of magic with a squeeze of the fist, the fingers slowly open to show the coin has vanished. It's stronger, but still child's play compared to a pro.

The audience expected the coin to vanish, was conditioned to seeing what it looked like to actually put the coin in the hand. When the vanish fails, expectations are broken and they relax. There was a natural motivation to remove the coin, allowing me to do the false transfer.

Even still, you could add more layers by wrapping the effect in context, within a story or conceptual framework.

Notice, if I say, "snap your fingers," it's bossy and boring. If I say, "what would happen if you snapped your fingers over the coin," it inspires curiosity and the participant will snap their fingers without being explicitly asked to.

Words are incredibly powerful.

Deception can be more subtle. With carefully crafted scripts, assumptions and expectations can be implanted in the spectator's mind.

If I say "It's real magic, folks," I might get hit with a tomato. It would work much better to create an implied association between idiots and people who think it's all just sleight-of-hand.

In a magic effect it might go something like this, "Some people might think I'm hiding the card in my hand." I show my hand empty and say, "Some people think the Earth is flat." It's funny, so the audience relaxes and expectations decrease, but the implications in the spectators mind go beyond the revelation that the card wasn't in the hand. There is a sense that believing any method other than real magic was used, is equivalent to believing the Earth is flat, ie. that's impossible! Obviously people won't actually believe that it is real magic (one would hope) but for the moment, it allows people to suspend disbelief and turn off the puzzle solving part of the brain, giving them a psychological permission slip to enjoy the magic.

What if a corrupt government wants to keep the population's unquestioning loyalty? Create the term conspiracy theory and associate those who investigate crime in the highest echelons of power with cranks, and tinfoil hat wearing dumb dumbs.

These are very simple examples. You can literally spend a lifetime learning this stuff.

3. Deception can be layered to create the perfect illusion

When working on a new effect, I would ask myself, "how would this look if it were real magic?" Sometimes it's possible to make it look exactly like real magic.

With enough practice, you can craft an effect in such a way that it becomes impossible for the audience to work it out after the fact.

The memory of a magic effect is as important as the initial reaction. When someone describes a magic effect they just saw, they always exaggerate, forget certain parts, and make up details without even knowing it. It's well known eyewitness testimony is unreliable. "But my memory is accurate," says the fool.

If you're aware of this phenomenon, through testing for different audiences you can sculpt the desired memory of an effect. People would describe magic effects I did, and without knowing it, make them seem like more impossible feats than I could ever do. I took advantage of the opportunity.

"And you were holding the cards the entire time?" I say to the participant with a stunned face. "Yes, I was. That's impossible," she says, even though it's not true.

I held the deck for a split second, as I asked her a question, so it will never be remembered. In the minds of the audience, I truly never touched the deck of cards. It's a perfect deception, impossible to unravel without a videotaped copy of the performance.

The performer's tone of voice, words, body language, and actions all have implied meanings. Add to these, physical methods like sleight-of-hand and prepared "gimmicks," and a deception can be built up with many layers of depth.

There are endless methods with varying degrees of sophistication, and certain techniques juxtaposed become stronger.

By alternating between techniques and layering deception, you can create flawless illusions, impenetrable after the fact.

Get with the program! Implied truthiness in media

The advertising agencies have their tentacles in the news, film, and TV shows and their campaigns are much more subtle than product placement.

Their goal could be to convince young men that they need to dress in the latest fashion in order to be liked by an attractive lady (or vice versa with young women of course). Even more subtle and pernicious, anyone who doesn't conform is perceived as the eccentric loner, inadequate, unwanted, and condemned to economic failure.

In Mr. Robot, the hero who tries to buck the system turns out to be mentally ill and an outcast. In True Detective, the story ends abruptly with the capture of the mentally ill patsy, without pursuit of the deeper conspiracy of those with power.

Love is never portrayed as something other than attachment and lust. The people always trust authority figures, governments always exist, war is for the "greater good," patriotism is honourable, teachers are assholes, high-school kids are worse, nobody eats healthily, alcoholism/addiction is common . . . you get the picture.

I know, I know, "art is a reflection of life, man, like, it's not mind control."

Is this some grand conspiracy, a plan devised by the 1% to divide and conquer? That's a waste of time to try to prove.

The fact that can be seen by anyone who pays attention is we are sold beliefs implied by the behaviour of the attractive stars. Since everyone watches the same movies, social feedback serves to confirm the beliefs.

Programming is standardized, organized from the top down, if not intentionally, then it is an expression of our natural tendencies, or a feedback loop between the two. Either way, media has an incredibly powerful influence and children are the most vulnerable.

What should we do?

Shoulds and shouldn'ts are self-induced mind control. Why should I do anything? Saying I should, or must do something implies I am in conflict. If I understand myself, correct action comes naturally and unenforced.

The real secret to being immune to mind control is understanding how we deceive ourselves. A real revolution will occur when the masses turn their attention towards the underlying structure of their behaviour.

Magicians have an important role in society. They teach us how easily we can be fooled to protect us from the evil magicians, who deceive for personal gain.

Most importantly, they remind us that real magic isn't the impossible things we imagine.

It is said that being a magician is the most honest profession. First, they tell you they will deceive you. Then they proceed to do exactly that.

Sources: skypal's brain, except for the Bernays quote which was found here. All images are owned by skypal or are from pixabay.

@skypal writes about topics that interest him like financial markets, psychology, and true life stories. When promoting his Steemit account, sometimes he writes about himself in third person.

When I got diagnosed with schizophrenia I stopped watching tv completely. It crazy how different my viewpoint is than most others. My eyes are wide open and everyone else still has on their 3D glasses. The world is more than 3D and it's very hard to explain that to people in terms they are willing to comprehend. Illusions and delusions... two different worlds they say but what if my delusions were their illusions.

Truth is something I search for everyday. I see five shades of black and white where most others see two or three. Shades of purples and violets are beautiful but lie in between the 4 or 5 realm most people don't get to experience. I hope you do because the world is really beautiful at about 3.95-3.98 when it's still safe but slightly dangerous like a pale purple lilac among bright pinks. A subtle element of surprise and wonder that seems so innocently sweet. That's the beauty of the illness at times. Life can be elusive and grand in my world in simple terms.

I can relate with your statement "It crazy how different my viewpoint is than most others. My eyes are wide open and everyone else still has on their 3D glasses." Though I don't have schizophrenia, I have seen a glimpse or two of that world. But it is ever present in the background of my perception. If only the (western) world would come to understand what schizophrenia actually is. :::sigh:::

Maybe the western world sees it as a disease? Where other cultures embrace the distinction in viewpoints. Idk I try not to worry about it because it's all just a glimpse in a moment of eternity and it's bigger than we can comprehend or I want to try to comprehend.

The point is it is not a disease. In other cultures, a schizophrenic is viewed as a 'candidate' shaman. The Shaman has conscious access to realities that us 'normal folk' do not. (This isn't a judgement against non-shamans ;)). The "shaman" fulfills a vital function in society, IMHO.

---.--Homa

P.S. Have you contacted a shaman based in another culture with a the aim of understanding? I think that you may find answers to the existential questions that, I suspect, plague you. if you so choose. :)

I have not contacted anyone outside of medical professionals in the states regarding the illness. It's been a journey the last year or so just trying to keep my life and family together with the illness. I don't know exactly what a shaman is but will google it. It would be wonderful to be embraced for the illness in place of being shunned by society. I have limited knowledge of other cultures medical practices because I worked as a health care professional before my illness set in. We were taught to be respectful of others beliefs but to push for the American viewpoint in lifestyle changes for modifiable risk factors and cures for unmodifable risk factors. The thing is schizophrenia doesn't quite fit into that model so it's been blacklisted and kinda a dark subject in the American viewpoint. I was always kind to my patients that suffered from schizophrenia but going through it is way different than what it appears to be on the outside. I do see visions of things that seems surreal, of another universe that runs next to ours but on a different time sequence. Time runs different when I am in psychosis as we term it here in the states. It's like nothing else exists and I have no control over my eyes or body or mind and it just plays these stories that are massively complex but beautiful and terrifying at the same time. I can't be brought back to reality in this state, I do not respond to stimuli not even pain, I don't eat or drink or feel the desire for humanly wants or needs. Just it's so very strange to think you maybe fell asleep then wake up to realize your body as been walking around the house interacting with people and doing things while your mind was somewhere else. I am trained to provide care for medical needs but this... this illness there's no training I could have done to prepare a person or body to be seperates from each other in a way that doesn't emboli the death process. So it seems my soul lies in an in between somewhere between this world and another that no one else sees. I keep hoping to find someone who also sees the other world.

I have read that in some small tribes, schizophrenia is considered a calling and gift/curse of the ability to see through the vail. When signs present the local shaman takes the person, usually a child, and trains them to become the next generation of healer. I don't remember where I read this though. Possibly a magic book. The modern magician probably originates from shamanistic tradition of using deception ethically, to heal through placebo and herbal medicine, and inspire wonder for the health of the tribe. Maybe you're a shaman.

Kristy, Thank you for the insight. I have had many schizophrenic patients. And, on every level of education, including a double PhD Math & Physics fella. I know it can strike anyone in a certain age range, and it's for life.
Not sure if this story relates to anything. However, when I was a child up to the age of ten I suffered from constant dejavu. It was ridiculous, I always knew the words like 2 seconds before they were spoken. It was everyday and constant. At the age of ten I was hit by a car, and suffered massive head trauma. Right up until the moment the car hit me I knew what was coming (except for the car part) from a dream I had the night before. As the events unfolded I was in amazement because this time it was from an actual dream, not just from "knowing." Up until the car hit me, I was following along with the dream. A girl from school passes by with her mom, just like the dream, I mimic them and laugh as I pass them. After a few steps I turn around to see if they're chasing me like in the dream. They are chasing me! So I run to cross the street, and a car hits me, and I land on my head.
Months later, I see the girl from the dream at school. She asked me why I ran, I said, "because you and your mom were chasing me," They were running at me screaming Noooo, because I was headed for an oncoming car. I seldom ever get dejavu anymore, it pretty much ended that day in the road.

@pinam27 sounds like you were walking on those planes @kristy1 was referring to , there are many views on spirituality , but what you two describe fits the part, maybe you can find the answers for yourself.

So far all I've got was the "knowing" part and if you don't sustain , ie go back to the normal way of life of drinking and sleeping in a room sitting , you loose those flowers so to speak.

Giving you a follow, thanks for the shared stories to you both and to @skypal for the nice post and my first curation reward D:D (for some reason I wasn't doing a good job by now :D , steemit is a blue bird all right )

The world is often 5D in my view. I have a paper I wrote on it somewhere that discusses the whole concept I see and clearly defines the lines between reality and non reality. The basic is 0is the testing system and false, 1 is real and true, 2 is real but not true, 3 is not real but could be true in certain spaces, 4 is never real but on rare occasions becomes a warped reality for unwilling victims, and 5 is never true not to be seen by humans and a portal to the unknown. 0 example is the grass is blue, 1 is the grass is green, 2 the grass can be both blue or green depending on the type of grass, 3 is crop circles in grass are real to some people but not others, 4 is said believer in crop circles thinks they are being abducted by aliens or under alien control, 5 is full enchantment with the alien world and to an existence not yet known. I have better more thought out examples and research behind this line of thinking just don't know where I placed it because paperwork is hard for me to not misplace and I try to hide my weird theories and research from my children's prying eyes. But the world is very more complex than 3D. I sometimes see 11 dimensions in things like mathematics and arthimatic. All started at the same time as the illness so makes me wonder if others see it too? Had I just not seen it before or is this just an awaken of sorts for my soul? Idk but I used to see the worlds through rose tinted glasses and feel the lenses malfunctioned and so I try to view people and actions through rose tint because it's about a mid level 3: slightly believable but too good to be true. It's nice to have hope.

All you've said is true , the world is different, there are other dimensions and realities, schizophrenia i not a sickens. Trust me there are many that see the world in 3D.A lot of secrets and mystery are yet to come. Right now you are where I am in my state of development I am pleased to see people here like me.

There with the help of my minor russian skills and some backup from yandex translator for the final lines.

@makedonsk following , I'm not a russian speaker but I do understand at least half of it , for the most part :) , there is something very interesting going on :) . Here and now :) , everywhere and always :).

@kristy1 no fear , sometimes you have to relearn and move on from the past , you will know it more and deeper.

Hi @skypal. To be honest, when I first read your headline, I was expecting (due to my personal past experiences) an account from a former Hogwarts professor. ;)

"The memory of a magic effect is as important as the initial reaction. When someone describes a magic effect they just saw, they always exaggerate, forget certain parts, and make up details without even knowing it. It's well known eyewitness testimony is unreliable. "But my memory is accurate," says the fool."

This reminds me of the teaching story about the three blind men in a room with an elephant...each exclaiming what it was, and each being wrong.

An aggregate of eyewitness testimony will yield an accurate result ---- "netwrorked eyewitness testimony". Collectively it will have built in error correction. :)

---Homa

P.S. Upvoted and resteemed and followed. Thanks for the enlightening post! :)

Very nice article with good explanations. Things can definitely be used in manipulating the way we think. I believe we can get more aware of these type of things and begin to break out of the control. My recent article has some thoughts along the same lines.

Here's the quote again, more fully, Ctrl-C'd from Wikiquote, in turn from a book called Propaganda:

In almost every act of our lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons [...] who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.

I think this has everything to do with @skypal's story, showing both how this is possible, and how the audience willingly become dupes, in return for entertainment.

Try surfing for reviews of the most reliable national and international news venues. very disheartening and extremely concerning. Who are we to believe? Is it all entertainment? Diversify your news sources and look for patterns but is that really the best we can offer to citizens interested in being knowledgeable?

I know heykathy, it can be disheartening at times. Personally, if I feel the need to get some news, I diversify, look at many sources, like you say. Recently, I tend to disconnect completely from the news sphere because: a) the brain can only process so much information before new info starts making me dumber, and b)if something truly important happens, someone will tell me.

so much wisdom and many great tidbits here, don't even know where to begin except to say great article, and I tried to pull out just a few key ones that especially resonated for me...

The memory of a magic effect is as important as the initial reaction. When someone describes a magic effect they just saw, they always exaggerate, forget certain parts, and make up details without even knowing it. It's well known eyewitness testimony is unreliable. "But my memory is accurate," says the fool.

The performer's tone of voice, words, body language, and actions all have implied meanings. Add to these, physical methods like sleight-of-hand and prepared "gimmicks," and a deception can be built up with many layers of depth.

Even with over a decade of study, testing theories in performance, and watching professional magicians, I am still easily fooled if a magician uses an original method. In some cases, having more knowledge makes deception easier. There are "magician's magicians," skilled in fooling other magicians by using their knowledge against them.

Thank you so much. Ah, "public relations." To be honest I've never read that book or know anything about the guy other than the "torches of freedom" movement. Very telling quote. I'll have to read that book.

Upvoted Resteemed and following , thank you for using the postpromotion chat :D , check my posts below , so far I love your style , great writing , thank you ! Sure there is a lot of lies in media and by the day it gets worse sometimes, they just rush to print and people just lack that point of view where they don't buy into the play and the elaborate ploys .
There are some stunning pieces of media , be it videos, movies, games, journals , documentaries, but so long as we move away from reality we will live in a matrix of lies and lack true knowledge , therefore be gullable and marketable.

Oh yeah forgot to mention The Prestige.
and how they are not evil they are as frank as you are , we are watching programs, so we get programed.

Very well written and insightful post that I agree with. I just wrote a post about The Hegelian Dialectic that goes into this topic some more and I hope you don't mind, I added a link to your post in the related links at the bottom of my post. You have a new follower and I resteemed your post.

Great article, skypal! I recently joined Steemit, upvoted a few good articles (including yours), and you are my first Steemian 'followed'.

Through alternative media (alternative to mainstream media, of course) I have become aware of the "relatively small number of persons ... who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses (and who) pull the wires which control the public mind."

Apparently you are staying away from the term which begins with the letter 'I' and rhymes with 'Maserati'. So I will call them the international banking moguls who control our mainstream media, most of the big social media (but not Steemit!), our TV, movie and music industries, and who promote a Globalist agenda.

Thankfully we live in an age now where there are a heck of a lot more good people out there besides Edward Bernays who are exposing this 'wicked 1%'. And we appreciate your effort to further expose them.

For me, this line you gave puts it all concisely into perspective:

"My question for you is this: If a kid with a deck of cards could deceive intelligent adults, then what could an organization with unlimited resources and money do?"

Great post! Thanks for sharing. :)
Let's all get to know Edward Bernays and his pioneering work on propaganda / public relations / mind control.
Here's a link to a must watch documentary:"The Century of the Self"

In some cases, having more knowledge makes deception easier. There are "magician's magicians," skilled in fooling other magicians by using their knowledge against them.

Sounds a lot like poker players. ;)

There are a group of people on YT convinced any magician they cannot figure out must be utilizing demons. I broke down and explained how various tricks were performed that they were claiming required demon help and it did no good. Some of the tricks you could even plainly see mistakes made by the magician exposing their technique to achieve the effect and still ... "demons". =/

LMAO, I know the exact YT channel. I was so frustrated watching and reading comments! Especially since some of it wasn't even good magic! To think that just because you can't discover the secret method, means that it must be "demons" or "paranormal" is arrogant and stupid.

Wow, this is awesome! I love how you personalized it by explaining your background as a magician!

I always found it weird the unsaid definition of what "conspiracy theory" means; Even though anyone can clearly look up either of those words to find the definition and use of that word is quite applicable in most situations! Like you were saying, the feedback loop is so strong that it is hard to tell where it actually began!

Thanks for reading it. I'm grateful to find so many people who understand.

Yes, it is weird. Don't we want to encourage the investigation of criminal activity of those in positions of power? Nope, that's crazy talk. People with power would never make secret plans to illegally get more power.

Your welcome, This is a great place for more understanding of these types of topic!

It really is, a theory is a possible answer to explain something that doesn't make sense otherwise; Very unobtrusive yet it is fought vehemently! Even more than that, people in general would never do something immature just for their self gain, right? O_O

Cool, yeah he so good at mixing different "arts" of those kinds together to seamlessly make a presentation of any kind. It becomes confusing what he is actually doing.

Yeah, he really is one of the best magicians to learn from; Yet for that very reason he is one of the worst hypnotist to learn from. I am a hypnotist & hypnotherapist and in my earlier days of studying I was watching his show to learn from him in the subject of hypnosis.

Then I later realized that his roots are as a stage magician in the art of deception. Then I realized that most of his hypnosis performances were magic tricks mixed with hypnosis. I soon decided to stop watching him for the purpose of studying because I was learning about hypnosis, not magic.

If I did have the desire to learn magic though, he would be one of the main people I would study; I was thoroughly "tricked" by him for a long time.

Informative and generalized, will journey psychiatry.
The mind cannot be mapped as simple. There are people vulnerable to these suggestions, and others immune.
To help the readers, the greatest protection is insight - awareness of oneself current condition and whats happening. With the help of this article, insights be stronge for the one who reads.